Gasoline, Oil Prices Rise In L.v.

Stable gas prices have become the first domestic casualty of the Iraq-Kuwait conflict, forcing Lehigh Valley motorists to dig deeper in their pockets to pay for the increasingly expensive fuel.

This fall, those with oil-heated homes may discover that fuel oil prices have also climbed.

Claiming they're squeezed by suppliers, local gasoline and oil retailers have increased prices over the past week an average of 10 cents per gallon on gasoline and as much as 25 percent for heating oil.

The retailers expect prices to go higher.

Gas station operators said they expect another 10-cent increase per gallon by the end of this week.

Several stations polled by The Morning Call yesterday said they expect that, by this morning, motorists will be paying 5 cents more per gallon.

Tony Fritz, manager of 15th Street Shell, said he has raised his gas prices 10 cents per gallon in two days. Sunday, customers paid $1.18 for a gallon of premium unleaded gas. Yesterday, motorists at the busy service station paid $1.28 for the same amount. Likewise, regular unleaded prices jumped to $1.07 per gallon from 93 cents on the weekend.

"It's probably going up another 5 cents today, and I'm not making any money on it," Fritz said, agitated over the higher prices charged by gasoline distributors.

The price for regular unleaded gasoline in the Lehighton area varied as much as car owners reactions -- 1.09 at Pip's Texaco in Palmerton, $1.15 at another station just a block away, $1.07 in rural Ashfield and $1.04 at a Texaco station along Route 443 in Lehighton.

At Huber's Sunoco at Route 309 and Tollgate Road, just south of Quakertown, owner Charles Huber said he was forced to raise his prices 4 cents a gallon on Friday and 4 cents a gallon yesterday. Huber said he has noticed that his station is selling less high-test as customers opt for the cheaper grades of gasoline.

"I don't blame them for that," said Huber.

Many station managers across the Valley fear the rising cost of gasoline could spur a backlash from customers.

Although most customers have not complained, Helen Ryan, manager of Frankie's Texaco Service in Bethlehem, said the increased costs are making it difficult for businesses to break even.

Ryan said her station is holding the line on gas prices already stored in large underground tanks, but has to pass on increased costs to customers as the new higher-cost gas arrives.

"It's really hurting anybody in the station business," Ryan said.

"This is very upsetting for us. We can barely afford it," Ryan said. "We are not really looking forward to our next gas shipment. It's going to deplete our savings account," she said.

Ryan said she has to pay for the higher-priced gas cash-on-demand.

Over the past week, Ryan has increased the station's gasoline prices by 11 cents per gallon.

Most motorists have been relatively quite, resigning themselves to higher gas prices they can do little about.

"They've been listening to the news or reading the newspapers, so most of them understand that it's not us -- it's the oil companies themselves that are doing it," Ryan said.

For the most part, customers just want to know why the prices are increasing, said Jonathan Siegfri, operator for Danny's Citgo in Northampton.

After keeping the prices stable for more than a month, Siegfri said he had to increase per gallon prices by 6 cents yesterday and another 5 cents today.

"We were at one steady price for a month, and all of a sudden the gas distributor called this morning and gave me these prices that were 12 cents higher per gallon," Siegfri said.

Jim Yeager, owner of Yeager's Fuel Inc., Allentown, said he has boosted fuel oil prices 14 cents per gallon in the last week, reflecting his costs from suppliers.

A former secretary of the Pennsylvania Petroleum Association, Yeager said he is unhappy at having to increase prices so steeply, from 89.9 cents a gallon to $1.04 per gallon, but sees a silver lining in the oil crunch -- at least it's summertime.

"We're at $1.04 per gallon and we're not selling any either," Yeager said.

He's even delaying delivery to industrial customers in the hope that prices will return to normal soon.

Jim Deiter of Deiter Fuels saw his prices increase comparably.

"I've seen the increase as high as 11 cents in one day," he said. His fuel prices were 97.9 cents per gallon yesterday.

Both Deiter and Yeager said the uniformity of price increases from suppliers has led them to wonder if forces were at work outside the economic realm, conspiring to drive prices up.

Deiter and Yeager support an investigation into the steep price increases, similar to a probe called for Monday by the Service Station Dealers and Automotive Repair Association of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

While the home fuel dealers contacted yesterday said they had little choice but to increase prices because they have no reserves at this time of year, a few gas stations found themselves with the option of holding prices down.

"My prices have not changed, and I'm not raising my prices until I get a new shipment this week," said Dot O'Neil, station manager for Jack's Citgo in Allentown.